Did Dr. José Rizal Ever Receive an Insulting, Scathing Letter?

Did Dr. José Rizal Ever Get a Good Scolding Letter?  Answer:  Yes
Why?   He asked for it.
Who sent it?  An anonymous friar from Manila.

José Rizal: Miscellaneous Correspondence, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, 2011

On 15 February 1888, José Rizal received a  scolding letter from Manila signed “A Friar” addressed familiarly "To Pepe.”

The letter was a virtual assault on Rizal’s character and integrity.  It says, “I am duty bound to send you these lines whether you like them or not.”  Then the catalogue of character assassination began:

…You are very ungrateful.

…You have an atom of honesty.

…You attack cruelly without reason and without basis.

…You are becoming more and more stupid and vicious.

…You are totally submerged in the chaos of ignorance.

Of course, the friar reminds Pepe of what his religious order had bestowed on Rizal:

…You have repaid with blackest ingratitude the priceless benefits, which you received, from us.

…You owe us much of your education.

…What we are doing now is inhumanely impossible in bringing you out of ignorance.

The letter continues with a blame game involving God and Nature:

…We are not God that we could make bright minds out of nothing.

…If the fault is not yours, blame God and ask for an explanation of your backwardness.

…Blame Nature, which created you with innate incapacity.

…If you are miserable than before, it is not our fault.

This anonymous writer calls the Government  “the monster” and the culprit in influencing Pepe’s atrocious behavior:

…That monster claims to be your father;

…That Government which is duty bound to give you education, riches, and

solely responsible for you before humanity and God is;

…Destroying you,

…Spoiling you,

…Grabing your bread,

…Little by little annihilating you,

The anonymous author urges Pepe to attack this Government.

…You should attack it severely.

…If you do that you shall have us at your side.

This letter becomes more and more interesting because it attributes Rizal’s negative views to his readings.  

…The abuses and insults you hurl to us came from your trashy books. 

At that time, Rizal was reading Voltaire, Rousseau, Zola and other French celebrated intellectuals who, through their works, defined the meaning of  "The Age of Enlightenment."  

Rizal's sketch of Voltaire statue

Marble statue, Voltaire, Louvre Museum

Rizal was also working on the Tagalog translation of Schiller's call for freedom in "William Tell".

Page 4 of Rizal's  Guillermo Tell Tagalog translation

And finally, to add insult to injury, this anonymous letter-writer challenges Pepe to a duel!

…If you are offended, challenge us and we shall accept it.

…We are no cowards as you are.

 …Not discounting the possibility that a hidden hand may put an end to your life.

And piously, the “Friar” ends with:

…Amen.

     
                                                ♦♦♦♦♦

 We could almost hear Rizal roar with laughter.  He was delighted to receive this kind of letter because he actually asked for this letter.  Earlier, he had requested his friend, Sixto Lopez, to send him "anonymously" a very insulting letter for four reasons:

1)    He knew that his letters were being opened and censored.

2)    He wanted to satirize the censors by giving them a dose of their own medicine.

3)    The letter expresses exactly the friars' general  attitude toward the educated Filipinos or the "ilustrados." And most importantly,

4)    By receiving this kind of letter, Rizal is reassured that all his future letters will be delivered to him promptly.

Reference: Jose Rizal’s Miscellaneous Correspondence, NHCP, 2011, pp. 96-97. 

Did Dr. José Rizal Ever Enjoy Visiting a Jailhouse?

Question:  Did Dr. José Rizal  ever enjoy a visit to a jailhouse?
Answer:  Yes, he did!

We're not talking about Fort Santiago, his own jail cell. And he surely did not enjoy it there. He visited the jailhouse of Santa Cruz,  Laguna, where he was full of anguish. His mother. Teodora Mercado Alonzo was accused of poisoning a person. It appears Doña Teodora tried to save her cousin's marriage by intervening in their domestic quarrel.The authorities jailed her based on the accusation of the estranged wife of an attempt on her life. After a slow and costly legal appeal, she was exonerated, but then she had suffered two and a half years in jail. He visited his mother in jail during school breaks.

Rizal also learned of several jail houses. In 1890 Paciano and his brothers-in-law were deported to Calapan, Mindoro as Filibusteros. His sisters, Saturnina, Narcisa, and Olympia described in their letters to him the dismal and very isolated jail conditions. With some exceptions, jails are always miserable, dismal, and isolated anywhere. However, in one instance, Dr José Rizal actually loved visiting this jailhouse.  Where was this jailhouse?

It was in Heidelberg, Germany!

In 1886, Rizal arrived in Heidelberg, Germany. He had just finished  ophthalmic surgery internship training with the professor Dr. L. de Wecker of Paris.  He then went to Germany to do more specialized work with the University of Heidelberg professor, Dr. Otto Becker, whose Augenklinik is where ocular fundus research was being conducted. Here Rizal learned the principles of the concave interior of the eye consisting of the retina, the choroid, the sclera, the optic disk, and blood vessels, as seen by means of the ophthalmoscope, a new medical instrument, developed and first introduced in Heidelberg.

Heidelberg, an old world Renaissance town, is known for its religious tolerance, old fantastic ruined castle,  and the oldest university in Germany, famous as a distinguished center of  learning and scientific research. Rizal also advanced his German language skills here.

Rizal's apartment, white building

Rizal’s apartment was on 12 Ludwigsplatz, now Grabengasse. Among other attractions, he found the students' colorful prison house or the Studentenkarzer  only a block away. Totally intrigued and immersed by this institution, he visited it and even wrote about it to his parents.

Photo credit: Rainer J. Weber in dark jacket

Why is there a student jailhouse within the university? Because the university enjoyed its autonomy vis-a-vis the town council. Since the council had no legal jurisdiction over rowdy and noisy university students, the need for self-policing and governance was needed. In a house adjacent to the old university site in Augustinergasse, the University created its own administration for dealing with out-of-control student behavior.

Jail terms were normally meted out for drunkenness, brawls, (sounds familiar?) and dueling among rival members of fraternities. In Rizal's letter dated 26 February 1886, he wrote, "They fight only among themselves, corporation against corporation...many times without any motive...just to test bravery..." [Note: "fraternity" is a modern word.]

Sir Rainer J Weber, the Knight Commander of the Knights of Rizal Chapter in Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld, gave me a tour of this prison house. Below are the pictures he took.

At entrance door sign says: "Abandon hope, all who enters." Dante. 

One of the more artistic images.

No space is wasted.

The students' names, days in jail, and corps initials are recorded.

Soot was used for silhouettes.

A photo of a Heidelberg young student. 

One wall inscription said: "One for all, all for one! Because like honest people, we delivered five cobblestones found on the street to the cops by marking them 'found' and throwing them into the guardroom, we are confined here as martyrs to our own honesty."

The walls are packed with proud profiles.

Six days in the Villa Trall room, Karzer

Self-portraits in yellow jackets and red caps.

Regarding the throwing of the cobblestones, the text goes on, "Beware Officer! The hedgehog stings. 2-7 July 1901. Not guilty of course!

u

Most students have encounters with local policemen.

One poet wrote: "If instead of just 5 lanterns,
I'd snuffed full 25 dead,
I wouldn't have served just 2 days,
But rather a full 10 instead."  

Most misdeeds were for vandalism, drinking, and fencing.  The jailbirds used very concise and ironic phrases--perhaps another venue for Rizal's language studies.

 This door was plastered with photos of inmates. Note the sparse furniture.

The average days spent in jail was from 3 to 5 days. Even Mark Twain was fascinated by this prison.  He wrote: "I do not think I ever was in a more elaborately frescoed apartment." The jail house finally closed in 1914, but it continues to be a popular tour sight. In 1886, during Rizal's time, it was enlarged and renovated.

The Stairwell 

In a letter home Rizal described the students thus: "There are five Corp students here and they are Vandalia, Guestfalia, Saxoborussia, Rhenania and Swabia and their respective caps are red, green, white, blue and yellow."

Gray silhouettes bottom right, were from earlier times. 

Rizal's friends were the Swabians (the yellow caps). He played chess with them and twice a week joined them at a beer hall. He was invited to join their frat. Rizal wrote he observed their fencing practice. But Rizal had no time and declined the invitation.

Those incarcerated covered every inch of wall space with their colorful graffiti, making this jailhouse a contemporary tourist attraction. I tried to look for an 1886 graffiti, but there were layers upon layers of painting, obliterating earlier and older ones. In fact, if Rizal could have dared, he would have liked to be jailed in these premises too, so that he could have written his name on the wall. He could have drawn some neat profile of Crisostomo Ibarra of Noli me Tangere on the prison walls.

Sigmund Romberg popularized and romanticized the students of Heidelberg's carousing, fencing and beer-drinking spiels in the screen movie The Student Prince, a 1954 MGM production featuring Mario Lanza singing in the soundtrack. Current university students nowadays are still having fun, still drinking too much beer, still romancing the ladies, but dueling had gone out of style. 

So, when you take a tour of Heidelberg, one of your destinations must be to go to jail! and heed Dante's invocation: "Abandon hope all who enter!" Like Rizal, you will be astounded, impressed, and be captivated by the creative free-spirit of the university students of Heidelberg.

Did Dr. José Rizal Ever Use a Cuss Word in any of his Works?

Basic Question  Did Dr. José Rizal ever use a cuss word in his letters and works?

Quick answer:  Yes, he surely did.

Well, he actually used the word:  Damn it!  However it was not in Tagalog. Certainly not in Spanish, nor French, but in German.  It was  Donnerwetter!!! Damned!

Did we find this in any of his letters?  No, not in any of his letters, but in a comic strip he created for Pastor Karl Ullmer’s young son, Fritz.

In the summer of 1886, in Wilhelmsfeld, Germany, in a lovely quiet village, about thirteen kilometers from Heidelberg through a walk across the Odenwald forest, Rizal became the guest lodger at the vicarage of a protestant pastor Karl Ullmer and his wife and children: Etta and Fritz.

Fritz, the boy, was a curious lad who often must have gotten into Rizal’s private space. How did we know this? Pastor Karl Ullmer’s great grandsons, Fritz and Hans Hack said their grandfather, Fritz, told them Rizal had a large Philippine map tacked on to his bedroom wall and that this map attracted his interest so much that he studied it several times (maybe he would sneak into Rizal’s room when Rizal was out in Heidelberg doing his opthalmology practice and attending lectures at the University). Sometimes finding Rizal writing on his desk, Fritz would usually drag him out to gather strawberries, hunt for wild blueberries, or pick woodruff flowers (a twining lily flower that grows in circles around its stem). The Ullmers made Rizal enjoy quiet contentment that he wrote to family and friends how happy he was in Wilhelmsfeld.

Rizal at that time was also busy finishing the last chapters of his novel Noli me Tángere. So, perhaps to occupy Fritz's time, he created a six-frame comic strip of young Fritz and his friend. The boys are shown concocting naughty plots and reaping the natural consequences of their boyish pranks.

Picture yourself as young Fritz Ullmer. You’re an overactive thirteen-going-on-fourteen year old, not yet a grown up but trying to behave like one in a minute and reverting to being a child in the next. That’s the developmental condition of a newly-minted teen. Rizal knew this prototype real well. He had many years of practice with his nephews and nieces by Saturnina, Narcisa, Lucia, Maria, and Olympia. Rizal drew accompanying pictures of his Tagalog translations of the Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales for his young relatives. He knew comics was always a great hit.

Rizal drew a comic page exclusively about Fritz, for Fritz. If you were lucky to be the subject of a comic strip before, you would have been as thrilled to death as Fritz was.

Rizal had one of the boys utter a mild curse! This answers my question at the top of this page blog. However, you won’t find this “factoid” if you simply rely on the Rizaliana documents. You see, Big Brother had edited out the cuss word so that we (plebeians)  won’t ever get to see this offending word. The historical gate-keepers want to forever perpetuate the image of a clean national hero in the spirit of high hagiography.  

I, too, am enamored of this charming comics. The same is true for my Rizalista  friends, the Knights of Rizal members from Germany, Sir Rainer J. Weber, and from Belgium, Sir Lucien Spittael. I believe this cartoon is also Dr. Ambeth Ocampo’s favorite otherwise he wouldn’t have selected this particular image as the cover to his latest edition of  Calendar of Rizaliana, UST press, 2011.

Rizal's comic frame of R. Pfeiffer and Fritz Ullmer on Ocampo's book cover

However, my two KOR gentlemen friends alerted me to several mistakes in the German text and in the English translations. It appears to me however, that the Rizal Centennial Commission may somehow have altered Rizal’s true intentions by editing out his actual words. Do I have any valid basis for this statement? Perhaps. I'm not sure. However, in a conversation lately with Ambeth Ocampo at the last Filipino Book Festival held in San Francisco, Oct 1st and 2nd 2011, he informed me that in publishing Rizal’s Epistolarios, (Maximo??? Teodoro???) Kalaw suppressed several documents (letters from a Rizal girl friend deemed perhaps damaging to the national heroes' clean image).

 Now, let’s peruse Rizal's (un-expurgated) comic strip. Each frame is action-packed —a   sure boys’ winner! And it came in attractive water colors, too.

The original  strip is colored.

The two boys plot some naughty undertakings.
They march off to Heiligkreuzsteinach (HolyCrossSteinach). They steal apples.They throw them in the water. Rizal depicts the boys horsing around. Fritz warns his friend to be careful lest he falls into the water. Sure enough, R. Pfeiffer falls in. He utters a cuss word-- “Damn it! That’s a cold bath."  He calls out for help while Fritz laughs hard at his friend's misfortune. He fishes him out. On dry land Pfeiffer shivers, "Brrr, brrr"  and blurts out, "The water is wet!”
                           
Rainer J. Weber, and Lucien Spittael noted the “whitewash" (my choice of word, not theirs) in the English translations. Rizal's title: “The Baptism of R. Pfeiffer at Holy✝Steinach” was translated as “The Baptism of the Two Brothers.” That’s incorrect, they both declare. They weren’t brothers, they were buddies. To wit: one lived in Wilhelmsfeld, the other in Heiligkreuzsteinach, down over the next valley. Only one of them got his baptism in the Steinach, a little local stream. And it wasn’t Fritz. “Damn it!” was translated as “In heaven’s name!” That’s  putting it rather mildly. Rizal, in his sense of political correctness, made the naughty prankster, R. Pfeiffer, utter the cuss words—not Fritz, the pastor’s son.

Rizal did not say “picked” apples; he used the word “pinched,” stippitzten.  Pinched has that subtle connotation of having been sort of “stolen", a prank hatched by the boys (Lucien says, not stolen, but picked. or plucked. I say, picked without asking for permission).  Rizal’s choice of word is so delicately precise it lost something in their English translation.

Let me share with you the communication between my two Rizalista friends:

Sir Lucien to Sir Rainer: Nov. 2, 2011.
"The text on the comic: "The baptism of the two brothers" is… not correct. In German it says: "Die Taufe des R. Pfeiffer zu Heilig†steinach". The translation is "The baptism of R. Pfeiffer from Heilig†steinach"
While I was in Heidelberg I've done some research in Wilhelmsfeld and Steinach for the name R. Pfeiffer". No such name was to be found in the archives. We do not know where he got this name.
Rizal wrote Heilig†steinach. Rizal just made an abbreviation. Rizal wrote that he went to a neighboring village with the name "Heiligkreuzsteinach". He just replaces kreuz (cross) with the cross sign."

Sometime in July 2011 Lucien copied Rizal’s original German caption and with his own translation sent it to Ranier for feedback.

(For comparison, I add the translation of the Philippine version in parenthesis below. taken from Ocampo's Calendar of Rizalina.)

1.Wie sie schlimme Streiche beschließen.
How they are plotting naughty tricks. (How they solved a bad quarrel.)

2. Wie sie fröhlich Apfel  “stibitzen“ um sie ins Wasser zu werfen.
How they happily ???? apples to throw them in the water. (How happy they picked apples to throw in the water.)

3.Achtung! Sagte Fritz. Du kannst ins Wasser fallen!
Attention! Said Fritz. You can fall in the water! ("Attention!" said Fritz. You can fall into the water.)

4.Au!Au!
 Ha! Ha! (Ha! Ha!)

5.Donnerwetter! Das war ein kaltes Bad! Hilf! Hilf!  
Damn it! That was a cold bath! Help! Help! (In heaven's name! That was a cold bath. Help! Help!)

6.Hu! Hu! Ist das Wasser naß.  
 Hu!Hu! The water is wet. (Ha! Ha! How wet is the water.)

Rainer to Lucien: Nov. 9, 2011. 
Rainer explained that Rizal used the old style of spelling--the old orthography letter types--- no longer used in contemporary times. This may have contributed to the mis-translations. He presents his own transcription of the hard to decipher German spellings and wrote the faithful English translations. Rainer, an experienced English and Political Science teacher (ret.) confirms the corrected comic text with authority.

"This is now correct."
1.Wie sie schlimme Streiche beschließen.
How they are plotting naughty tricks.

2. Wie sie fröhlich Apfel "stippitzten" (not "stibitzen") um sie ins Wasser zu werfen.
 How they happily pinched apples to throw them in the water.

3.Achtung! Sagte Fritz. Du kannst ins Wasser fallen!
Attention! said Fritz. You can fall in the water!

4.Au!Au!
 Ouch! Ouch!

5.Donnerwetter! Das war ein kaltes Bad! Hilf! Hilf!
Damned/Blimey!!!* That was a cold bath! Help! Help!

 (*Blimey is a British mild curse.)

6.Hu! Hu! Ist das Wasser naß.
Brrr! Brrr! The water is wet.

This last frame is Rizal's punch line. To a native speaker, this must have been very funny. The synonym of "comics" is "funnies." By necessity, it must have a funny punchline. Rizal knew how to apply the formula.The joke he made was on the use of semantics, a very clever play on words. Here Rizal raises the joke to a higher intellectual level. Of course, the water is wet. It's a given, Silly.That funny line within the context of the German language is totally lost in the given English translation.

In Tagalog, it's a real strong punchline Basâ pala ang tubig. Yeah, yeah! what did you think... that the water is dry? How stupid can you get!

Within the Philippine cultural milieu, the last frame shows Fritz wringing water off R. Pfeiffer's drenched jacket, Fiipino-style, like "pinigâ". In the Philippines, in emergencies like this, one simply wrings out wet clothes and puts them on. The hot sunny weather automatically and almost immediately dries the clothes on one's back. Rizal had the last laugh by sketching Fritz like the ubiquitous Filipina washerwoman (lavandera). Now we know Rizal was really enjoying himself. Fritz thought he was laughing at his friend's expense, meanwhile Rizal was having a little fun at Fritz's expense!

Since my German is totally kaputt I could not join in on Sir Rainer's and Sir Lucien's discourse. However,what I miss in dialogue participation, I compensate in art contribution. I looked closely at the 1960 picture of Fritz and Hans Hack (Fritz Ullmer’s grandsons) taken in Manila (a year before the Rizal Centennial celebration) to personally present as a gift to the Philippine people the whole Ullmer-Rizaliana collection. When I superimposed Rizal’s Fritz Ullmer’s cartoon image, on Hans’ profile, an uncanny Ullmer three-generations-apart-profile came alive!

 Rizal had painted Fritz Ullmer as if Hans Hack-Ullmer had posed as his original model in 1886!!! I love it.

Fritz Ullmer's profile, right, 1886

  Mauro Mendez, Fritz Hack, age 23,  Hans Hack, 22, right, 1960.
(From Dr. Paz P. Mendez. Adventures in Rizaliana, NHI: Manila, 1978. p 33.) 

Isn't that something?  Blimey!!! See for yourself... same high forehead, same hair line, same strong jawline, same chin, same sharp profile, same attitude (now be honest, Sir Hans, were you ever guilty of the same pranks?) Donnerwetter!!!  Rizal was so damned good! We had been blind to miss this!


And finally, to Rizalistas everywhere, please take note:  --  Rainer, Lucien, and I tried to present through this blog the correct German captions and correct English translations of the Rizal Comics entitled "The Baptism of R. Pfeiffer at Heiligkreuzsteinach." 


Donnerwetter!!! ... a dammed good achievement! 


To Dr. Sir Fritz Hack (MD) and Dr. Sir Hans Hack (JD), descendants of the original Frtiz Ullmer character of the comics: Danke schön for donating your precious original Rizal comics to the Philippine Government.

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Leonor Rivera's Ashes: Dr. José Rizal's Letters

Leonor Rivera, Rizal's sweetheart, age 15.

We never had a chance to know what Dr. José Rizal wrote to Leonor Rivera because Doña Silvestra, Leonor's mother hid Rizal's love letters from Europe and confiscated Leonor's outgoing mails. All the while Leonor Rivera thought José Rizal had forgotten her. Travelling in Spain, Paris, Germany, and other European cities, Rizal thought Leonor had abandoned him. Rizal was heartbroken when he learned that Leonor Rivera was marrying someone else.

He poured his heart out to his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt. Later, when Leonor discovered her mother's treacherous interference (at her marriage to the Englishman, Henry Kipping) she ordered all the letters burned and kept the ashes.  Years later, she died during childbirth  and her last wishes was for the Rizal letter-ashes to be buried with her.

Parang pelikulang Tagalog starring Rogelio de la Rosa and Carmen Rosales (guitar music... Maala-ala mo kaya...)

We have a glimpse of José's letters in Chapter 7 of  Noli me tangere.

At the balcony, Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra were having an idyll. Maria coyly asked if he had forgotten her when he had seen so many beautiful girls in many cities.  Ibarra replies:

"He had not forgotten her during his travels. The Italian sun had not seemed warmer than her smile, the fields of Andalusia not brighter than her eyes, and, losing his way in the Black Forest or boating down the Rhine, he had remembered her in the romantic German legends of the Lorelei."   Rizal, Noli me Tangere (Guerrero Translation, p 37).

Did he write to her using the words in the Noli?  For sure he did.  Who is to say he did NOT?

Did Rizal write this way to Leonor in one of his burnt letters.  To be sure he did  especially during the last phases of his letter writing when he thought he had sublimated his ideal love to the ultimate love of country.

Leonor Rivera's Ashes & Dr. José Rizal's Love Letters

 L

Leonor Rivera, Rizal's sweetheart, age 15.

We never had a chance to know what Dr. José Rizal wrote to Leonor Rivera because Doña Silvestra, Leonor's mother hid Rizal's love letters from Europe and confiscated Leonor's outgoing mails. All the while Leonor Rivera thought José Rizal had forgotten her. Travelling in Spain, Paris, Germany, and other European cities, Rizal thought Leonor had abandoned him. Rizal was heartbroken when he learned that Leonor Rivera, who had been convinced that José  no longer cared, consented to marry someone else.

José Rizal poured his heart out to his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt.

Later, when Leonor discovered her mother's treacherous interference (at her marriage to the Englishman, Henry Kipping) she ordered all the letters burned and kept the ashes.  Years later, she died during childbirth  and her last wishes was for the Rizal letter-ashes to be buried with her.

(In a recent address by Dr Ambeth Ocampo, October, 2nd, 2011, at the FilBookFest, San Francisco, the information I got is that Leonor sewed the ashes in the hem of her wedding gown, so that when she marched down the aisle, the letter-ashes was with her.)

Parang pelikulang Tagalog starring Rogelio de la Rosa and Carmen Rosales (guitar music... Maala-ala mo kaya...gradually fading out.)

We have a glimpse of José's letters in Chapter 7 of  Noli me tangere.
At the balcony, Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra were having an idyll. Maria coyly asked if he had forgotten her when he had seen so many beautiful girls in many cities.  Ibarra replies that:

"He had not forgotten her during his travels. The Italian sun had not seemed warmer than her smile, the fields of Andalusia not brighter than her eyes, and, losing his way in the Black Forest or boating down the Rhine, he had remembered her in the romantic German legends of the Lorelei."   Rizal, Noli me Tangere (Guerrero translation, p 37).

Did he write to her using the words in the Noli?  For sure he did.  Who is to say he did NOT?


We hear Rizal here waxing eloquent for his lady love. Those words were perhaps in the burnt letters to Leonor!  We will never know but here in print are his words:

Suez Canal: Dr. José Rizal and his Padalas

Another effect of the shortened time and travel distance through the Suez Canal from the Philippines to Spain is the accessibility of trade goods. For the expatriate community like Rizal, trade goods can only mean padala of specialized Philippine food. This must be understood  by examining three things:

Scene Rizal must have seen entering the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.   Today's scene:  August 2011.

1.  The Filipinos in Spain are always hungering for Filipino food. No doubt about that.  In fact whenever they have get- togethers, they most often serve Filipino dishes: lechon, pancit, adobo.

2.  The opening of the Suez Canal shortened the time for food transport.  It has become easy to have neatly packaged and air-tight-sealed native delicacies not to spoil and prolong its travel- life.

3.  And most importantly, today, as it was during Rizal's time, the Filipino syndrome of padala was a common trait.

Let's peek into one of Rizal's letters.  Reporting on political doings and proposing social solutions within their circle--the Circulo-hispano filipino in Madrid, in the next paragraph he suddenly goes left field into a request for food!!!
...Sanciangco ...is going there and plans to return very soon. If you want to send me something, through him, you can do so, such as ...sweets, jellies, bagoong, pickled mangoes, tamarind...
   In-house stories tell (source: my father who heard his uncle Dr. Maximo Viola relate this story) that Rizal's bagoong clay jar broke during the passage at the Suez Canal. The sustained stink it created, mixed up with the salty-desert air, must have contributed to the erosion of the 2,500 year old sphinxes that lined the river Nile banks.

Meanwhile, Rizal is undaunted. In another instance, through Paterno this time, Rizal's bagoong was prepared air-tight and sealed properly. We know this because of another letter thanking them for their food padala and more request for various food igredients.

In one of Saturnina's letters, she complains that fruits are so scarce that she was not able to make preserves. However, she's sending him guava jellies instead. She adds that "through the next one who will go there" (of course through padala), she  ordered hand-woven piña embroidered handkerchiefs from Lipa.

We also learn that Rizal, paying court to Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, (the lovely daughter of Don Pablo Ortiga  the house owner where the Circulo hispano-filipino is held) gave a present of hand-embroided piña handkerchiefs.

Rizal receives (through padala parcels that he orders) all  kinds of noodles, (he must be cooking pancit), and esoteric Filipino ingredients  like "angkak" not available in Madrid.  What is that for?  I wonder if he must be preparing a lot of "buro" food!!!

It's interrelated: the opening of the Suez Canal and the exporting of specialized gustatorial support for the Filipino expatriates in Europe.

Suez Canal: Through Dr. José Rizal's Eyes

I

Southern Exit Suez Canal.

What an international buzz the Suez Canal created in 1868 at the opening ceremony!!! The Egyptian Pasha pulled all the stops.  The guest of honor was Empress Eugenie, Napoleon's wife.

The effect on the Philippines was overwhelming. The voyage from Manila to Spain which normally took 4 to 5 months, now averaged about a month. The so called "filibusteros" of 1872 (the Three Martyred Priest, Burgos, Gomez, Zamora) would have been saved had they self-exiled themselves via the Suez Canal to Spain, where the environment was more liberal than in the colony.  Many illustrious Filipino families like Pardo de Taveras took advantage of the Suez opening and emigrated to Paris and Spain.

Many sons of well-to do Filipinos were sent to Madrid to study and become lawyers (Paternos, Lete; doctors (Pardo de Tavera, Apacible, Cabangis;  artists (Luna,  Resurrecion, Figueroa); writers, (Sanciango, Lopez Jaena, del Pilar);  musicians, (Calero), residents, skilled workers, and many more. The Suez Canal passage made the trip easy, affordable and worthwhile.

It was not one-way though. Many Spanish functionaries were assigned to posts in the Philippines to enlarge the Peninsulares' population in Manila. Communication and liberal ideas from Europe flowed more freely to the islands.

Rizal left Manila on May 3rd and was at the Suez Canal Port Authority on June 2nd. His first trip abroad, he was like the proverbial bull in a porcelain shop. He noted everything. He sketched the scenery. He was loquacious and full of self-importance. He traveled First Class! He mailed postcards to friends and sent long letters to his parents at every sea-mail stop. He fed his daily journals with descriptive observations and factoids!!!

...It's not straight throughout its length; it has curves but small ones; sometimes it flows into a lake where it is believed Moses passed, and again enters the desert.  It crosses three lakes in its course.  On both banks, which are all yellow and white, where it is a real jewel to find grass, are erected some telegraph stations placed at several intervals.  (p. 18, Letters Between Rizal and Family Members, 1876-1896. NHI, 1962).

He wrote about people, animals, food, phenomenon.

...We have seen a traveler on a camel and two magnificent Arabian horses.  One of these, mounted by a customs officer attracted the attention of everybody.  


In my re-tracing of Rizal's footsteps, the Suez  I experienced was different. Instead of the mounted customs officers on Arabian horses I noted Army soldiers standing hawk-eyed along the canal.  It was  the end of August and I was caught up in the Arab Spring revolution in Cairo that brought Mubarak's fall  as president of Egypt.  Everyone on the Canal was on security watch.

II

Army sentry on the Canal.

I was unfortunately an unwilling participant in the Alexandria demonstration, having been swept into the throng.  I thought I was evading a street riot by docking into a street alley by the mosque.  Wrong turn!

Rizal made his readers' mouth water by the various fruits he tasted  in Suez:

...Here I have tasted cherries, apricots, and green almonds.


Rizal was extremely taken by witnessing a curious spectacle, a mirage:  in his own words...the reflection on the desert of seas and islands that do not exist.


In my re-tracing of José Rizal's Suez, the only camels I noted were dressed with tassels and draped with colorful Bedouin woven cloth saddles to attract tourists for a photo-shoot.

I did sample their green almonds. Great taste, a little bit tart but makes one chew with character (kasi ma-asim).  I came during the season for dates (August).  It was also the beginning of Ramadan when I arrived Suez.  That meant all the devout were on fast from sunup to sundown.  However, this is what I learned that Rizal failed to document: When Muslims break their fast, they sip a glass of water first and the first bite of solid food they take is a date fruit.  It is fresh, and very sweet, ensuring that a sugar-packed natural energy food is taken in first.

However, I admit that Rizal has the last word here.  He said he ate a fruit named dates!

The Suez Canal: Through Dr. José Rizal's Eyes

It was May 1882.  José  Rizal was on his way to Spain.  From Manila he took a boat to Singapore, changed to an ocean steamer, the Djenmah,  traveled on through the Indian Sea by way of Colombo Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and then on to the Arabian Sea.  He got off the boat at Aden, Yemen (http://penelopevflores.blogpot.com), and then his boat entered the Red Sea, the entrance to the Suez Canal.

My trip to the Suez Canal was a product of serendipity.  I was commissioned by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Mr James Espinas, the curator of the Rizal Exhibit,  to paint a Rizal Mural Travel Map for the special Rizal 150th Birthday Celebration and Exhibit. This mural (50" by 70") was to indicate his European trips and trace the routes he took.

I had been re-tracing the footsteps of Dr José Rizal in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain for the past several years and delight in blogging and sharing my experience with my many followers.

This site (Suez Canal) however was out of my radar sights at that time.  As I drew Rizal's itinerary from Manila--through the Indian and Arabian Seas, and then through the Suez Canal on to the Mediterranean and Europe--I realized Rizal had traversed the Suez Canal five times!!! (1882, 1887, 1891, 1896 twice).

Why had I not read any article written on this topic?  Answer: Because none had been published. To be sure timelines and matter of fact statements are found in Rizal biographies, but an article on his unique experience  in going through the Suez Canal several  times was sorely missing.

By default, it was left for me to fill up this gap, so  read on to my next blog.

José Rizal's papers were processed in this Suez Canal Port Authority building, 1882.

Dr. José Rizal on the Suez Canal

Image via Wikipedia

Suez Canal in 1882.

My trip to the Suez Canal, July, 2011 was the product of serendipity.  I was commissioned  to paint a special canvas for the Rizal 150th Celebration exhibition at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center curated by James Espinas. It was to be a world map of Rizal's travels.  As I started tracing the routes Rizal made, suddenly the top of my head lighted up as a function of a hovering light bulb. Rizal passed the Suez canal five times!!!  1882, 1887, 1891, and 1896 twice.  Why has this Suez trip never been analyzed, explained, or elaborated? By default, it has become my luck to be the one to explore its significance in relation to Rizal.

The canal was the brainchild of a Frenchman:  Ferdinand de Lesseps.  It was began in 1859 and completed 10 years.  Rounding Africa takes  12,300 miles. Going through the Suez Canal shortens the distance to 7,200 miles.

Ismailia canal supplies filtrated drinking water to Suez and Port Said workers.

Tanker on the canal, view from street.

Captured Israeli tank, Suez

Ismailia canal, parallel to the Suez canal.

Peace Bridge across Suez canal, donated by the Japanese Governent, 2005

Penélope re-tracing Rizal's trip through the Suez Canal

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Right canal, right camera. Shoot!

Port Said--Two Girls: a Greek and a Turk, just as Rizal described

An Ismaili girl and her clay water jar.

Suez: Where the Red Sea ends and the Mediterranean Sea begins.

On the highway to Suez, Port Said

Suez Canal toll booth

Immigration Stop. Rizal's papers, his first passport read Jose Protacio Mercado y Alonso.

Signs in Arabic

Tanker navigating the canal seen from the street.